With the recent American presidential election in the books (or seemingly so despite some recount efforts), many U.S. business owners will have a keen eye on where President-Elect Donald Trump takes things in 2017 and beyond.

Will there be opportunities for some U.S. companies to eye new business around the world under Trump’s leadership? Will some foreign companies be looking to partner with American companies on global projects? Lastly, will the dollar find strength worldwide with a new leader in the White House?

What seems like so many questions and so few answers right now is exactly the case.

If your American business is thinking about global expansion, would the next year or two be the time to go for it?

Knowing When to Pull the Trigger

So that you are better suited to know when to consider expanding worldwide, keep your eyes on the following items:

Conditions on the ground – First and foremost, know the conditions in any country you consider doing business in. What are the economics in that area? Are there any political issues now or down the road that could impact businesses there? Have companies been leaving in droves or coming in droves? Knowing the metrics involved in any area you may want to expand to is crucial, especially for your financial well-being;

Are you ready to expand? Along with the conditions on the ground globally, you need to know if you and your brand are ready at this time to expand. Although that may seem like a difficult proposition to gauge at times, it is nonetheless an important one. If you are leaning towards global expansion to Dubai, Shanghai, Brazil, Russia, China etc. it is important to be ready when you actually pull the trigger on such moves. This means not only having the financial ability for such a move, but also being able to market and sell your brand overseas. If you are a little behind the eight ball when it comes to marketing, advertising, search engine optimization (SEO) etc. be sure to get those matters worked out before any possible expansion. The SEO matter is especially important due to the fact millions and millions of consumers turn to company websites and social media pages for information. If you are not meeting consumer needs in such areas, your brand and ultimately your wallet or purse will suffer for it. Reaching out to a SEO company in Dubai or similar business can put you on the right track for both website and overall business growth;

Necessary manpower – Finally, if expansion possibilities are on the horizon for you, do you have the manpower to push forward with them? Even though many companies in recent years have gone to more automation in handling daily business tasks, you can never truly replace the needed human element. As a result, making sure you have enough hands available to meet the needs of consumers is critical. If you’re an American business opening new offices overseas, you may very well end up hiring all locals to staff the places. Among the advantages in doing so is locals know the culture and speak the language of that given country and/or region.

Only Expand When Absolutely Sure the Time Has Come

As you ponder the possibilities of global expansion in 2017, make sure to give yourself as much information as possible.

In terms of getting that data and properly analyzing it, you should be sure of the following:

Having updated metrics with which to work with – How a country or countries did financially and politically even six months ago could have changed rather quickly up to now. If you have contacts on the ground, even better;

Having a website that continues to draw traffic – If your website is continuing to grow in terms of traffic (especially overseas traffic), study that data. It can tell you a number of things about potential for overseas growth. Use your website analytics to help forecast if moving to one or a number of places makes sense financially;

Having your brand front and center – Lastly, even though you want as much information about possible overseas expansion, you also want to give consumers (current and potential customers) reason to want to do business with you if you expand. By using blog content, press releases, videos, social media and more, you can do just that. Spreading the message when you are ready to expand is critical to successfully achieving such growth.

By Ben Thomas

Your first few steady customers are finally paying all your bills – and as celebration-worthy as that is, it also raises new questions in need of executive answers. Where are the next few customers or clients going to come from? WhatÂs a reasonable advertising budget – and how much is too much? How will hiring a new employee (or three) or renting some new space impact your rate of expansion?

Questions like these can make your small businessÂs first expansion feel at least as stressful as your initial launch – but a little intuitive knowledge of your expansionÂs objectives, boundaries and processes can reduce even the most complex decisions down to simple ÂyesÂ or ÂnoÂ analyses. Here, three small-business experts share the analytical strategies that have become second nature to them as theyÂve progressed through their own business expansions.

Flow like water

ThereÂs an old saying that water is stronger than rock, because water never cracks – it just reshapes itself to fit whatever surroundings itÂs in. The exact same principle holds true in business: The more your expansions – and shrinkages, if and when those come – all follow naturally from the size and shape of your market, the less likely youÂll be to overextend yourself and fragment your team.

In other words, the clearest signs that itÂs time to expand are those that make it harder and harder not to: When youÂve got so many customers that sales are slowing you down; when products are selling out too quickly for your space to hold onto stock; when you find yourself giving a lot of referrals for a service you could be providing – and so on. In cases like these, thereÂs probably no reason to delay an expansion, even if it feels a little intimidating.

ÂWhen we started, we only had a small space and we only had one room,Â says Donna Alexander, founder and president of Anger Room. ÂBut we started getting so much publicity, and so many customers coming in, that we actually had to start turning people away. And that was like a big neon sign: ÂOK, itÂs time to get a bigger space.ÂÂ

By the same token, the clearest signs that youÂve overextended your business are those that feel like hitting some kind of wall: When the money youÂre pouring into new ads and/or spaces isnÂt correlating with any return; when training a new employee is slowing down sales; when you find yourself starting to give referrals simply because you canÂt handle the volume – and so on. Although these signs donÂt necessarily mean that you canÂt expand, they do point to the fact that youÂve got some bugs that need to be worked out.

Scan for indicators

Even if youÂre not drowning in customers, your interactions with the customers you do have can serve as strong indicators about whether itÂs time for an expansion – and if so, what direction that expansion should take.

ÂYouÂve got to listen to your market, because with every sale – or lack of a sale – those people are telling you what you do for them, and if you could be doing more, or doing something differently,Â says Carolyn Andrews, a certified business and executive coach with Actioncoach. ÂOne of the most important things about timing your expansion is looking at how your market perceives you.Â

It doesnÂt take a market research firm to find out how your customers feel – it just takes some mutually honest conversations.

Those conversations will come in handy as you analyze the shape your sales are taking, and the reasons why. Which products or services are you selling more or less of than usual? What changes in your market could account for those shifts in sales? WhatÂs your competition doing in response? Does their response leave a new vacuum into which you can expand? ÂHaving a really solid handle on what’s happening in your market is crucial,Â Andrews says, Âand itÂs so much easier to get personal insight into your marketÂs behavior when you listen to what customers are saying to you.Â

Andrews advises looking for Âgreen lightsÂ on all three indicators – positive customer conversations, promising sales analysis and under-adaptive competitor behavior – before you make the leap into your expansion. ÂWhen you analyze your potential for expansion in terms of those three indicators,Â she says, Âyou end up with one simple answer: a ÂyesÂ or a Âno.ÂÂ

Jump straight in

Leaping into your expansion isnÂt just a figure of speech – the only way to be sure your expansion will succeed is to throw everything youÂve got (yourself included) into it.

ÂIn the end, thereÂs no such thing as a perfect time to expand,Â says Stacy Deprey-Purper, founder and CEO of Better Business Together. ÂBut you and your staff still have to jump in with a Âwhatever-it-takesÂ attitude, because thatÂs where your reputation, your customer need and your buzz ultimately come from.Â

Still, jumping in doesnÂt mean jumping blind. So take as much time as you can afford and draw up a clear plan for your expansion, including employee roles, steps of the expansion, timing projections and so on. ÂI say that everybody needs a plan… so they can deviate from it,Â Deprey-Purper says. ÂYou donÂt need a detailed long-term plan, but you need to have some idea of what youÂll be spending and where itÂs going to go. I had a client the other day who spent $50,000 on decorations for his restaurant, which ate up 99 percent of his marketing budget.Â In short, check that your plan makes sense as a whole before you start throwing money at specific parts of it.

A trusted group of advisers can help on that front – and that can mean a business coach, other successful entrepreneurs, consumers in your market or even a lawyer. ÂWe were once approached by a group of investors who seemed very kind and polite in person, but who actually wanted to take over our company,Â Alexander recalls. ÂWhen we sat down to sign the paperwork, they suddenly told us, ÂWe want 90 percent of the company, and youÂll get the other 10.Â Luckily weÂd hired a lawyer to look over the papers for us.Â ItÂs situations like this that demonstrate why itÂs vital to have some professional second-guessers in your corner.

At the same time, though, itÂs important to keep in mind that youÂre the boss, and that the decision depends on your instincts in the end. ÂIf youÂve got too much thinking and not enough doing,Â Deprey-Purper says, Âyou can overthink yourself out of taking action. No matter how much planning you do, youÂll always get some curveballs – and you have to take those as opportunities to learn about your business and plow forward.Â

Author’s Bio: Ben Thomas writes about careers in marketing, among other business career fields, for The Riley Guide.

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